ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats picked up their first win of the season Friday night, using excellent work on the mound and the bat of freshman catcher
Cole Solomon to knock off North Dakota State, 4-1, in the first game of a three-game set at Crutcher Scott Field.
Starting pitcher
Austin Lambright and relievers
Jonah Smith and
Brandon Lambright combined to limit the Bison to just three hits and Solomon drove in two runs as the Wildcats improve to 1-4. The Bison – who entered Abilene coming off a four-game sweep of Mississippi Valley State last weekend – are now 4-1 on the year.
KEY INNING
The Wildcats trailed 1-0 after a solo home run by Ben Petersen in the third inning before
Luis Trevino hit a solo home run for ACU in the fourth inning to tie the game, 1-1. Solomon collected his first RBI in the fifth inning when his single to right-centerfield drove in
Derek Scott, who led off the inning with a single and stolen base. That run gave the Wildcats a lead they would not relinquish at 2-1.
However, they were able to tack on a couple of insurance runs in the seventh inning against NDSU relief pitcher Chris Choles. Scott was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and then went to second on a balk. He then moved to third on a groundout by
Mark Pearson and scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Solomon to make it 3-1.
Dalon Farkas then tripled to center field and came home when pinch-hitter
Hunter Hays reached on a throwing error by third baseman Matt Elsenpeter, giving the Wildcats a 4-1 lead.
ON THE MOUND
Austin Lambright got the start on Friday night for the second straight week, and again he pitched well. However, like last week when he threw 83 pitches while striking out nine batters in just four innings, he lasted just 3 2/3 innings against the Bison, but did strike out five batters. However, he racked up 97 pitches, mainly because he walked six batters.
Jonah Smith (1-0) was very effective in middle relief, hurling 3 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball, striking out one and allowing just one hit. He worked out of a couple of jams, but never really ran into much trouble.
Brandon Lambright entered the game with no outs and Carter Thompson on first after a walk to lead off the eighth.
Brandon Lambright was dominant and needed just eight pitches to get out of the inning with a strikeout and back-to-back one-pitch popouts. In the ninth he mowed down the top three hitters in the Bison lineup on just nine pitches, striking out the last two batters of the game to earn the save.
AT THE PLATE
The Wildcats hit the for the cycle as a team in the game with a home run by Trevino (1), a triple by
Dalon Farkas (1), a double by Crippen (2) and singles by Farkas, Crippen,
Koby Claborn, Scott and Solomon. Farkas and Crippen each had two hits in the contest.
NOTABLE
• The Wildcats had just 83 extra-base hits in 53 games last season (68 doubles among them), an average of just 1.6 extra-base hits a game in 2016. The Wildcats, however, already have 15 extra-base hits in five games (3.0 per game), putting them on pace to almost double last year's total with 165 extra-base hits in 2017.
• ACU pitchers had trouble last weekend allowing too many walks (26 in four games), and that was a problem again Friday night against North Dakota State.
Austin Lambright walked six Bison and
Jonah Smith walked three more to give ACU pitchers 35 walks in 45 innings of work.
NEXT GAME
The Wildcats and Bison will be back in action Saturday with a single game at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on 102.7 FM The Bear.
